"Every fisherman dreams of something like this happening"
FISHERMAN Greg Lamprecht got the shock of his life off the coast from Seventeen Seventy with his dad and friends when a seven-metre whale shark bumped against their boat.
"Every fishermen dreams of something like that happening. In almost 30 years of fishing I have never encountered a whale shark."
Greg said he thought the whale shark was likely migrating to warmer waters. "They like warm water and they go where the food source is plentiful."
Greg, who is from the Sunshine Coast and runs the Wicked Fishing Facebook page, said Gladstone had become a place-to-visit for fishing.
"It's full of diversity," he said.
"I know of lots of people who travel to Gladstone just for the fishing. It's a beautiful place and the weather is always spot on."
Greg has had an extraordinary trip off 1770, fishing the Bunker Group reefs.
He "had an unbelievable experience with a whale shark that we will remember for a long time".
"It had a rub on the boat and let us pat it for a while before moving on," he says.
"To make it even more special it had two albino remoras (sucker fish) with it and a nice cobia which was amazing to see.'
